No compromises on national security

As the House struggles with reducing the federal budget deficit, one issue that gets lost in the shuffle is U.S. national security. That is something we can’t afford to compromise.

More than one floor amendment has been introduced this week seeking to cut drastically, or even eliminate, the United States Institute of Peace — the only congressionally mandated and funded institution to develop civilian capacity to perform international conflict management and peace-building.

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The Institute of Peace was set up by Congress as a non-partisan effort, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Its origins began earlier — through a legislated commission chaired by Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii), a World War II veteran of the Army’s famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who believed passionately in the importance of the U.S. as international peacemaker.

The Institute has been federally funded for 27 years as an independent organization to support the military, the State Department, successive administrations and the international community in preventing deadly violence and manage unfolding conflicts overseas, as well as to help societies move from war to peace.

How ironic, even as our nation is at war in Afghanistan and shifting from war to peace in Iraq, that anyone in Congress could decide that now is the right time to undermine a proven, innovative congressional institution on the frontlines — helping U.S. men and women in uniform, and on the civilian side, to save lives.

USIP’s budget is miniscule—one tenth of 1 percent of the State Department budget — not even enough to cover 40 soldiers in Afghanistan for a year. Yet in the post-Cold War world, its influence has grown dramatically, as its programs have helped the country adjust to a new and challenging international environment.

During the war in Iraq, it was USIP that the Army’s 10th Mountain Division called to help quell violence in the restive province of Mahmoudiya. USIP had international conflict management skills that did not exist inside the military — or at the State Department.